soil. >> the rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside gaza on israeli cities and towns must end. >> with america's role in negotiations stepping up the fighting, it's raging on. israel pound gag sa with round after round of air strikes today. at least 19 civilians were wounded in a bus bombing that took place in tel aviv. that blast happening as the bus was passing the defense ministry there. hamas leaders praised that bombing calling it a natural response to israeli massacres in gaza. in gaza, however, people took to the streets in celebration of that explosion in israel. the white house condemning the bus bombing, going on record saying that the u.s. will stand with its israeli allies. joining me from cairo, nbc news correspondent jim maceda. jim, explain to all of us the reaction to secretary clinton's visit to the region and the impact that her presence has brought to the negotiations for a cease-fire. >> reporter: first, the reaction

has been one of anxiety, anticipation, and of deep hope that secretary of state hillary clinton can now broker or help to broke err deal. they certainly don't want war right next door. many are asking where america has been for these past eight or so years. i think the overall feeling is one of anticipation, that something hopefully now can move forward. in terms of her impact today, she's met already with president morsi. she's also wrapping up a meeting with the foreign minister and we understand at the press conference she's supposed to give has not started yet. but i can guarantee you that many people here in egypt and israel are intent on following that press conference. unlike yesterday, there have been no dramatic statements that a cease-fire will be declared at such and such a time. today it's more the reality of both sides, israel and hamas, getting bogged down in details. apparently, at least according to egyptian sources, they

haven't yet been able to bridge differences. it's really unclear whether secretary clinton is carrying any specific proposals or if is she's here basically to nudge both sides into some kind of a compromise. but her presence here does give both sides the respected international i'd say political heavyweight to talk to, which certainly can't hurt. according to egyptian sources again, the main sticking point as we understand it seems to be over hamas' key demand, and it's not a surprising one, that that six-year-old blockade of gaza be lifted when the truce goes into effect. israel is balking at that. it reportedly is saying while it agrees with the principle of lifting the siege eventually, it does not agree with the timing. it wants to postpone it until later, some say until after the elections. >> jim, real quickly, your reporting, you've been able to learn there are reports of security forces in egypt

intercepting and seizing smuggled weapons. what more do we know about that? >> reporter: yes. that is correct. it's a vivid example of the problems of post cease fire here because of the possible rearming of hamas. the government did announce today that its security fors caught a group of smugglers with two truckloads of rockets in the northwest part of the country. there were mortars, rpgs, at least two or three dozen rockets. and these were meant either for mill tanls in the sinai or in gaza. and of course israel is trying to seek international guarantees that this kind of activity stoms completely and that is another sticking point. >> jim, the source of those weapons? who are they saying that they're coming from? >> reporter: i'm glald you mentioned that. they are coming, they say, from libya, which would not be the first time, but is increasingly

the case. >> jim maceda, thank you. joining us msnbc contributor adreel, a democratic strategist and republican strategist. let's just get right into it. let's start with the tel aviv bus explosion that took place. 19 injuries. three of them are considered serious injuries. happening in front of the defense ministry there in tel aviv. secretary clinton issuing a quick statement in response to this saying the u.s. strongly condemns the terrorist attack and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the people of israel. how much does on attack like this on the civilian population go to into fear with the negotiations at the highest wlefls secretary clinton at the hell snm. >> a lot. whoever unld and knows the middle east knew it was coming, knew exactly what was -- what are the things that are about to happen. this is the first of many

attacks if this will not stop, if this operation in gaza will not stop. a third intefadeh was about to happen no matter what. palestinians were already frustrated, fed up, very angry, and very, very -- very alert, watching the arab world, seeking their freedom, toppling regimes, gaining some kind of rights. and they've been looking at themselves and saying we did nothing in these years. hamas of course exploited this politically, but solution to all of this has to be a diplomatic solution. the more we delay this, the more attacks we'll see. >> joe, i want to ask you because republicans have been critical of the aid, $2 billion in aid the u.s. provides annually to the government, most recently senator lind cie graham on "meet the press" over the weekend, saying we're watching you. secretary clinton in cairo keeping contact with president morsi, what are republicans in washington looking for as our two governments are trying to resolve this together?

>> well, we're looking for balance, of course, and looking for our government for secretary clinton to represent our best interests in these negotiations. obviously, everybody wants to see peace in the middle east. and now we have the challenge of dealing with fairly awe and untested -- not regimes but new administrations. and so there's a lot of uncertainty in that part of the world, a lot of urn certainty with regards to whether or not there will be peace. we, of course, our prayers are with the families that lost loved ones in these terrorist attacks, and we're praying for peace in that part of the world. but clearly we want the u.s. to stand strong and want secretary clinton to be successful in negotiations. >> we did play that sound earlier from secretary clinton condemning the hamas attacks, the rocket fire on israel, as terrorist attacks from within ga gaza. there have been questions certainly about the president's relationship with prime minister benjamin netanyahu, questions

about the relationship between the u.s. and israel in general. does this current crisis strengthen or test that bond? >> well, it certainly -- >> i was asking marty. sorry, joe. >> i'm sorry. >> well, i think certainly secretary clinton's efforts, i have a lot of confidence in her efforts and i think it will strengthen the the bonds we've traditionally had with israel. it's also an important reminder for our own political dialogue to really not interject our own tense politics on a situation that is so serious and rapidly evolving. the situation is obviously serious enough without our own partisan politics entering the discussion. >> you brought up with a third intefadeh. if your piece today in "the daily beast," you wrote although a cease-fire is inevidentable in the next few days the israeli bombardment and threat of a ground invasion has pushed palestinians in the west bank and elsewhere ever closer to revolt. as we look back over the last 12 years of what we've seen happen there and the violence that took

place and then the calm and then the violence would rage again, you feel this is just the tip of the iceberg. we need to see the big elephant in the room here, and the big elephant is this conflict never really touched. what i mean by this, we had a peace accord in 1993 peace israel and palestinian, signed by both sides but never implemented. palestinians at the end of the day really never had a chance to have their own freedom or eve on the build a life with dignity. this is what they've been asking over and over. and the more we delay the solution, the more actually we will push them in the handle of hamas. the winner of this conflict today is hamas. and the winner of this conflict for the next election would be bib ineten ya hue who told them i will give you nothing. what you do is you undermine the moderates and empower the extremis extremists. american administration need to be seen in this moment where

these changes are happening in the middle east as a fair broker. they've neve been in the history. it's time for them to be a rel rheally fair broke we are the palestinians and the israelis. >> as all this is going on, margie, i want to ask you about the benghazi probe and the recent report that it was intelligence officials who changed susan rice's talking points, not the white house. senator john mccain has come out now to issue this statement on the heels of that saying this latest episode another reason why many of rus so frustrated with and suspicious of the actions of this administration when it comes to the benghazi attack. yet again it goes back to the administration. why do you think the president's team has been successful in efforts to stop the controversy the despite this very strong defense of rice that's coming out -- that's coming from the president himself? have they done enough? >> have they done enough to defend susan rice? certainly, i think the president's been very clear about how he feels about susan rice. i think -- and he's been right

to defend her. i think some of the attacks that have come from senator mccain and others have been very political in their tone and really not thinking about her job and the talking points she received and also the seriousness of the situation and the timing of when this political fight began, which was right in the middle of the heat of the election. i think we're just seeing that continue now and it's unfortunate because it's something that really the american people don't want, is certainly something that is a distraction from really figuring out what's going on in that situation and other situations. >> and joe, congressman jim cry burn took issue with colleagues that have called ambassador rice incompetent. take a look at what he said about that yesterday. >> these are code words. we heard them during the campaign. during this recent campaign, we heard senator sununu calling our president lazy, incompetent. these kinds of terms that those of us, especially those of us

who were born and raised in the south, we would hear in these little words and phrases all of our lives. and we get insulted by them. >> joe, what does your gut tell you about the fact there are people on the left that say that this reeks of racism and sexism? how do you answer those that would subject that that is what is at the bottom of this controversy, something more? >> well, clearly we still have challenges with both racism and sexism in this country, still. and congressman clyburn is one of the most respected members of congress and someone i personally like a great deal. wrarlds to susan rice, i would say this, that the american people deserve to know exactly what happened and i think certainly senator mccain's concerns are well-founded. i think susan rice is competent. i think she's a brilliant woman. i think that smart people make mistakes also and that she just needs to be forthcoming and the administration needs to be forthcoming about what happened

with regards to benghazi. we all deserve to know. it shouldn't be put into the box of a racial attack. it should be put into the box of we all want to know what happened and we deserve to know what happened so we don't make the same mistakes. >> you were shaking your head. is it more about deserving -- a lot of people would make an assumption about some type of cover-up. is this more about protecting potential cover for what the u.s. interests are in libya at this present time moving forward? >> i think we really need to get over these attacks. and we need to see the world as shifting and changing constantly. it's very hard to have immediate assessment on what's going on. i think, you know, when susan rice is negotiating in this moment, you cannot undermine her ability to negotiate but attacking her over and over because she's negotiating with the iranians over the nuclear bomb. we have major issues in the world, and we are consuming our time and the energy and the

viewers' even attention to be focus odd exactly the words. they said terrorist attack. it's enough. we should move forward and focus on the major issues taking place in that moment that are connected to our future and the security of this nation. libya, remember, today we found there was weapons coming. >> correct. >> and they were intercepted and they came from libya. it's still an open box and it's still -- there's a lot of questions about the libyan ability to control the various group that are operating in this moment. >> mm-hmm. >> we need to handle them differently. smart policy, less attacks, talk less, and more actions. >> my power panel for this wednesday, thanks so much. i really appreciate it. have a great holiday to all of you. fwhak the arena, general jon allen back to afghanistan in kabul after being investigated for inappropriate e-mails with a woman linked to the petraeus scandal.

could the general return to work too? plus, what a roller coaster ride for the twinkie this week. from going out of business to maybe not, but things aren't looking so good right now for that hostess brand. and of course thanksgiving is tomorrow. so a big question to everybody out there is, what are you thankful for this year? tweet us your replies. we use this board to compare car insurance rates side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe hard enough. a smarter way to shop around. now that's progressive. call or click today. [ grunting ]

back in command in afghanistan, general jon allen resumed his duties today more than a week after the pentagon announced it was investigating emails between him and a woman tied to the david petraeus affair. and there are still unanswered questions in the petraeus scandal like why did the fbi

keep investigating the cia director if he committed no crime? and could petraeus have resigned for basically nothing? joining us from minneapolis is former cia officer criminal defense attorney jack rice. good to have you here. this new "washington post"/abc poll finds out that even after he resigned people see general david petraeus in a favorable light. could the president bring him back, nominate him as the next cia director? do you think that's way too far off the map? >> it probably is way too far off the map. realistically, now, you have to look at anybody in his position, anybody at the flagship level if you will. these guys are politicians in the first place. that was before he was director of cia. come in as director, generally speaking you're still a politician. it's hard to bring them back. there is a political cost to it. in fact, there's been some other names that are out there that maybe more likely than what we've seen from the president at this point.

>> let's talk act those other possible names, the replacements. we haven't heard a lot from house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers recently, the way he's gone after ambassador susan rice over the benghazi talking points, obviously. is he angling for this job, and is that a serious way to look like the best replacement? >> yeah, i think it is. i think that's the angle that will probably happen. the downside to this -- and if we're going to look at this politically speaking, the one thing i'm always concerned about is the democrats have regularly been almost -- have a sore spot about being seen as weak on national security issues. and the problem with consistently bringing in, quote, unquote, republicans on this issue, almost seems to support that argument. and the problem is it's not really a left or right question. in fact, if you take a look at american policy in general, what we find is it doesn't change that much on a foreign policy issue regardless of whether we have a republican or democrat in office. sadly, we wrap the politics

around it and it sort of clouds what's really going on here. >> so now the acting cia director, but there are other contenders, and which stands out to you as a petraeus replacement? >> well, morrell could potentially do this. typically, that's what we have seen in the past, but usually again, you want somebody at a higher level. he's been around for a long time on his national security staff, brennan, and quite a high-profile. that may be the direction he goes. he was very closely involved in many ways with what we saw with osama bin laden and other things. so he could certainly play that role. but on the other hand, the idea of bringing in a republican as that replacement may be used to shut down what we're hearing from lindsey graham, what we're hearing from john mccain and others if we're talking about honesty, transparency, and all of the complaints they've been having frankly since mitt romney lost the election. >> real quickly, though. i want to get back to general

allen. as we said, he is back on the job back in kabul. he took time off and was in washington, d.c., when all of this broke because he was up for a promotion. that's been waylaid for now. the intelligence committee still investigating his conduct, but he is back in place in kabul. what does that suggest to you and how much of a wide berth are they going to get in this investigation considering the fact that he's running the afghan war? >> i suspect he's going to continue to do so. at the end of the day, the real question was, was there any real disclosure, was there any real harm here. and at this point, it seems that there was not. he is doing exactly what it is that the president wants him to do, and so i think they sent him back. he was looking far promotion to go to europe. i don't think that's going to happen because of the political elements here. but your first reference to this investigation of what the bureau was doing early on, once you found that there really was no disclosures here, that is troubling. there are limitations to what it is that the fbi should be doing

regardless here amend i think we need to make sure what they're doing if it's just looking at sex scandals, that may be a bit off the mark. >> yeah, at what point was there an overreach. jack rice, great to see you. thanks yr joining us. supreme decisions. how president obama could shape the supreme court during his second term. plus, did you hear about this? a college basketball player shatters the ncaa record with his triple-digit scoring game. we'll bring you the details. twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully

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yesterday. a judge called for mediation in hopes of averting liquidation and saving 18,000 jobs. the jobless report is out today claiming we're down last week as 41,000 less people filed for unemployment benefits than the previous week. analysts say the total claims number remains elevated due to hurricane sandy. dougless kennedy, the son of the late robert f. kennedy, has been aquilted of charges with in two nurses. a sophomore at college has set a new scoring record. he scored 138 points last night shooting 52 shots from the field including 27 three-pointers. the previous record was set back in 1954. congrats to him. working together. democrats' bipartisan plan for helping hurricane sandy victims. i'll be talking to him. and is thursday the new friday?

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hurricane sandy may have hit more than three weeks ago but it's taking its tolls on those trying to celebrate thanksgiving. many have to leave home to spend the holiday with family and friends. many churches and other groups are also organizing thanksgiving meals with hundreds of volunteers giving up their holiday to serve others. the jersey shore was among the hardest hit as we've been reporting. and the recovery effort there was the subject of bipartisan meetings on -- in the state capitol yesterday that included governor chris christie and the entire delegation. among those attending, bill pascrell from the ways and means commit mee and house budget

committee. yesterday you discussed legislation you are currently drafting similar to that crafted after hurricane katrina to help individuals and businesses as well as the local government. let's talk about that legislation and the timetable. how fast are you looking to get this done? >> we're going try to get this done within the next three months, tom. i think it's very critical that we move. the moves have been great so far with bipartisan efforts with the governor and the president of the united states. i'm very hopeful about this. yesterday's meeting was trying to solidify the group so that we know we're going to have a tough battle getting any legislation through. i'm already working with three or four members on ways and means committee who know quite well, first of all, fema does not really cover except for loans, low-interest loans, the business community. these guys and gals are hurting out there, small businesses. we've got to get some form of tax deduction so that they can make themselves whole again. we want to keep people in

business. second of all, home -- the homes. tremendous damage. there's a point beyond which insurance doesn't cover. we should provide that. that's what we did in katrina. that's what we should be doing for new jersey, whether it be the shore or north jersey area, which was hit severely, like towns like hoboken, little ferry. so we're trying to look at the whole situation, tom. and i think we can come to a resolution. there's the delegation seems to me together. i hope we need to provide a united front or else it's just not going to be work. >> it does sound like you guys are walking side by side in step coordination. the governor was with you part of these meetings. as we talk act federal money for building projects, iffer homes, small businesses, let's talk more about -- because i know this was on the agenda of conversation, as well -- protecting jersey from superstorms, the protection project agenda.

what stands out to you? >> it looks like the president and the vice president are on the same page. vice president was here this weekend. we need to do a heck of a lot of shoring up on the shore itself, whether we're talking about dunes or restoration. this is going to be an expensive proposition, no two ways about it. you know how much money comes out of tourism on the jersey shore affects -- impacts the entire state, not just the shore. so we need a commitment from the federal government, so not only is the army corkoer ocorps of e involved but the fullbacking of the federal government is necessary. if we're going to restore a major part of our economy. and i feel good about this, but it's not going to be cheap. we have to have reasons. there needs to be oversight so that money is not provided just frivolously, and i don't think anybody wants that. >> the numbers, though. you say it's not going to be cheap. is there a damage estimate, some estimation right now from the storm damage? >> i expect by friday or monday,

tom, that we will have a bottom line figure. the governor's office is working on that right now, justifying each of the line items that would be in that proposal. so i'm very confident that we could do that either by 4:00, 5:00 friday afternoon or monday morning. i'm very confident we'll have a number to go by. i think it's going to be a lot more realistic number than you saw the governor of new york, who i have a great deal of respect for. but i didn't think that helped us in providing dollars for any of the tristate area that was affected by this storm. you need to plan this out, tow yao need to be very resolved, you need to be able to substantiate. you asked me a question before about the shore. we're talking about risk. that's where we should be spending our money, reducing the risk. i thought that was an excellent question you asked. >> real quickly while i have you, i want to gauge your confidence, though, on the fiscal cliff, because time is running out on that territory. how confident are you that something can get done by

january 1st? >> i'm confident that the president of the united states has put forth a germane plan to the question that you're asking. i want to show you something, tom. this is a report that came out september the 14th. september the 14th of this year, which republicans very, very strongly opposed even being made public. and the reason why they are strongly opposed to this is this report, which came out in from the congressional research service, which is a nonpartisan group, this report is about the taxes in the economy, what part do taxes play in this economy. and if i could just read you one line in this entire -- >> sure thing. >> there's not a conclusive evidence to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in top tax rates and economic growth. and it goes on to be much more

specific than that. the republicans did not want the american people to see this because it blows holes in the ryan budget and their camp -- it blows holes in it. and what it does is basically bring us back to reality in a much more balanced approach to try to fix this by january 1st. is it all going to be fixed by january 1st? i don't think so. am i hopeful? well, we had a bipartisan meeting friday. democrats and republicans on the ways and means committee. the question is the leadership may be with us in trying to get this resolved, they have to look to their leadership, they have to look to mr. boehner to see if they would be willing to put this up, a balanced approach of cuts to future expenditures as well as increasing the rates for upper income individuals. there is no proof whatsoever. we saw this in 2001 and 2003. we had huge tax cuts to the

upper level primarily. and that did not produce any jobs. in fact, in bush's second term we lost many, many hundreds of thousands of jocks. so what i'm saying to you is i don't think this will be resolved totally by january 1st. i think there's enough cool-headed, reasonable people on both sides of the aisle that will rise above the politics, rise above -- and hopefully get a solution. we need this. this is very good for the markets. it would be very good for the american people. >> congressman bill pascrell, thanks for your time. happy holidays. >> thank you. same to you and your family moop. >> thank you. so the makeup of the supreme court could have gone more conservative had mitt romney won. now president obama has an opportunity to shift the bench in a more liberal leaning direction or maintain the status quo. given the number of potential outgoing justice, his options are wide open. joining e me with me is kenji,

new york university law professor. likely to make at least one appointment in his second term. for justices, they are in their 70s, justice ginsburg with to po tenial she could retire being she is 79 years old. who would be the key, you think, to being replaced first, though? >> yeah. so i don't think that we can go solely on the ages because the ages are only a weak proxy. marty ginsburg, justice gips burg's late husband, how frail is a justice, she can do 25 push-ups, how many can you do? she wants to stay on at least as long as her hero, justin brandeis, a few years from now. >> who would be the next logical person looking to get off the bench? >> the next person who might get off the bench, it could be scalia, kennedy. i think they'll be hanging on with their fingernails to wait out this administration. and justice breyer, of course, is 74. so you have two people who are

76 and 74 underneath that. >> appointing a justice to the supreme court has always been seen as a history-changing moment for any president to do so. but in this case, does the president care wholeheartedly about changing history here? or would he be more interested in status quo? >> one of the things the administration has come under a lot of fire for is it's been left focused on judicial nominations than it has been on electoral politics. at the level of the scoupreme court, of course president obama cares. if ginsburg leaves, harris might be a natural appointment. the real fireworks will begin if someone like justice kennedy or scalia leaves because that could change it to a majority liberal court. i think he'll go with a more conservative choice like judge merritt gar land on the d.c. circuit. i think the place to look for now is lower down, which is to say there are over 100

vacancies. keep in mind the federal judiciaries has about 870 members, so for that to be that many vacancies is striking and obama seems to care less about that than his predecessors. >> so to use a sports analogy, there needs to be a deep bench to fill the bench at the supreme court. kenji, great to have you here. happy thanksgiving to you and yours. coming up, shoppers may be dealing with some extra crowds on black friday. we're talking about the protesters. we'll explain why. plus, presidential pride. how the community helped the president win re-election. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain;

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anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. we know you're out there, those people looking to get a jump on holiday shopping. this week they are getting help from retailers across the country as black friday moves slowly into a black thursday. target and toys "r" us are opening thursday.

but will stores make it wourt your while to leave the turkey behind? retail analyst and author of "black market billions," great to have you here. i know you had an opportunity to speak with a walmart exec, and they ear in the headline, a group of workers threatening to walk off the job on friday to protest the company's business practices. they want better pay, better benefits, better hours of working. walmart has come out to say the fact is our pay and benefit plans are as good or gbetter thn our retail competitors including those ununionized and our customers will see nothing unusual when they shop. what did you get from the top? >> the walmart executive was saying while they can't forecast what may happen, some protests will occur, they filed that petition with the national labor relations bureau. the bureau said they won't deal with the case until after thanksgiving. so these protests are definitely going to happen. here's the take-away.

there are 1 million walmart employees that will be working on thanksgiving. and they told me that they are very excited to be in those stores and working and they don't have any issues. most walmarts will be open 24 hours, so while these protests will be expected, they don't expect them to be impeding any of the shopping. >> is walmart in general because of negative headlines they've gotten, are they doing anything to attract customers with better deals or taking a look at that to try to turn the press around? >> from what i understand, what they have in place right now is obviously they're opening their doors at 8:00. their black friday deal is starting at 8:00 p.m. on thanksgiving. their doors, a lot of these superstores will be open 24 hours. they have another black friday deal happening at 0 p.m. so they're not doing anything different in that sense only because they don't really expect that much conflict, i guess i should say, happening at those walmart stores. >> as we talk about the creep, black friday turning into this, you know, gray thursday, i don't

know, but more and more people are attracted to this? i mean, on thanksgiving day, the movie theaters are a hot ticket for people. >> always packed. right? >> is this now shop, people getting a jump-start on black friday? >> the big take-away is the number. it's $586 billion. that's how much money is expected to be spent over black friday and into the weekend. that's from the national retail federation. now, that's up 4.1% nape ear expecting that to be up 4.1%. that's higher than the ten-year national average, which was 3.5%, but less than what happened last year at 5.6%. so yes, they were expecting these people to qom in but people don't want to sit at their computers after thanksgiving dinner and shop. >> they want to be in the thick of it, work off the turkey. thanks for being here and happy holidays to you. >> you too. cobbler and gobbler will be spared from your thanksgiving dinner. time for the "political

sidebar." these are the two turkeys president obama will pardon in just a couple hours. the two birds have been hanging out at the w hotel near the white house complete with wood shavings on the floor. we're hearing cobbler and gobbler are fans of carly simon and fiddle music but they do not like country. if you're listening over at the w hotel, do not play the country music. the president is letting facebook users decide which turkey to spare. the other one will be the runner-up that still gets the same perks so cobbler or gobbler. make your choice. this is ironic. after tallying up nearly all the election votes, mitt romney is likely to get 47% of the vote. the cook political report says that new votes from maryland put him at 47.56%, wand new numbers expected from new york and california, romney will likely end up below 47.5%, but still that magic number there, 47%. there's ban few romney sightings lately. he went to d disney land with the family yesterday. he rode some rides, you can see

him there, took time out to shake hands with people. and one man caught romney filling up his gas tank near his home in la jolla. joe kennedy i.ii getting married next week. that's grandson of robert f. kennedy, the first kennedy back in congress since patrick retired in 2010. want to try to crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it! now we need a little bit more... [ male announcer ] at humana, we understand the value of quality time and personal attention. which is why we are proud to partner with health care professionals who understand the difference that quality time with our members can make...

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it doesn't matter whether you're black or white or hispanic or asian or native american or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in america if you're willing to try. >> president obama's rousing election be night victory speech telling the nation and his broad coalition of voters that he's ready to move america forward within minorities and young voters. all a huge component of the president's winning coalition.

what hasn't gotten much attention is the president's margin against the lgbt community. exit poll data showing 76% of voters who identify themselves as part of the lgbt community supported the president, 22% for gojer romney. where do republicans go from here? we bring in gary gates, scholar from ucla's williams institute and au author of "the gay and lesbian ats has." we had a chance to sit on a panel and talk about this data. we went over what the president in his first term as done as a signal to the lgbt community, signing a bill to repeal don't ask, don't tell, stop defending the defense of marriage act, what is a reasonable expectation for the lgbt community to secext in the second term. >> a lot of work will be on the regulatory side. additional new policies that the

president can do without necessarily legislative support. for instance, an executive order that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in government contractors. and another issue that i'm very concerned about is data collection so getting sexual orientation on more federal surveys. >> the study from gallup on the 2012 electorate, found ta the democrats lost 1% of self-identified liberals to the independent party while 7% of conservatives chose to be independent over republican. what immediate policies can the right do, republicans do, to stem that loss? i mean because that's a big hemorrhage? >> i think in terms of lgbt people and the vote, i suspect that support for the employment nondiscrimination act would go a long way. that tends to poll well above

80% in the american support in the electorate. and i think that that's one big legislative effort that would go a long way to helping some of the lop-sided support that the democrats get among the lgbt community. >> quickly, former chairman ken mehlman openly gay wrote an op-ed in "the wall street journal" talking about project right side a new effort to get republicans, people on the right who have been opposed to marriage equality to come around. do you think that they have -- is four years enough time to do that? i mean -- >> i'm not sure that four years is enough. it's a tough road. but the stakes are, you know, fairly high. if governor romney had won say half of the lgbt vote he would have won the national popular vote and won ohio, florida and virginia in this year's race. he would have been within four electoral votes of victory. in close elections, the support of the lgbt community clearly matters. >> gary gates, distinguished

scholar from the williams institute at ucla law school, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> we want to know why you are thankful. these tweets, m lynnz because i'm breathing and every day is a new day. that's cool. i'm thankful for all the things money can't buy, love of family, peace, happiness and joy. tonychau i'm thankful for @msnbc and be @thomasaroberts. can we take a shot of him in the booth. keep the comments. use the #whyi'mthankful. have a great thanksgiving. that's going to wrap up the hour. see you back in at 2:00, filling in for tamron on news nation. follow me on twitter @thomas a roberts. ari is in the hot seat today. what do you have coming up? >> we have a good one, thomas. hillary clinton is in the middle

east today pursuing a truce agreement. does her strtrip signal the new realities. p.j. crowley former assistant secretary of state to join us and discuss and republicans do keep piling on against susan rice, a potential nominee to replace secretary clinton. but when you do the math, and add up the number of republicans who actually have the authority to stop rice, it may be be much ado about nothing. we will explain. plus, yes, it is cobbler versus gobbler. two turkeys enter the white house only one gets the trophy. who will win the vote in today's presidential pardon? ben smith, heather mcghee, richard wolffe and jonathan capehart will join me to tackle that and much more when "now" starts in three minutes. can i help you? i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right.

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call today. ♪  (child screaming underwater)... (underwater noises). no holiday for hillary clinton. the secretary of state is in deep negotiations today. will she broker a cease-fire? is it's wednesday, november 21st, this is "now."